
A Mermaid
John William Waterhouse (1849 to 1917), 1900
$140
Print check at 12 x 16 in: 154 dpi, good. Trimmed 8.3% to the shape of the print.
Shipping to a US address: $24.80 for this piece, from the print room in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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A mermaid sits alone on the rocks at the mouth of a cave, combing out her long copper hair, a scatter of pearls in the shell beside her, the grey-green sea breaking quietly behind. Waterhouse gives her none of the menace of the old sailor-drowning legend — only a moment of self-possessed solitude, half-human and entirely at home. He submitted it as his diploma work to the Royal Academy, the picture by which he chose to be judged, and its cool northern light and melancholy calm are Pre-Raphaelite enchantment at its most refined. The sea-creature of a hundred myths, painted as a quiet, private afternoon.
- Maker
- John William Waterhouse (1849 to 1917)
- Date
- 1900
- Medium of the original
- Painting
- Original held by
- Royal Academy of Arts, London
- Credit
- Royal Academy of Arts, London · via Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00656
| Picture | 12 x 16 in |
|---|---|
| Outside size | 13.6 x 17.6 in |
| Depth | 0.9 in (22 mm) |
| Weight | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]] |
| Hanging | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]] |
| Material | Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing |
| Made in | Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi |
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | dpi | Grade | How it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 x 12 in | 224 | Excellent | Trimmed 3.1% |
| 12 x 16 in | 154 | Good | Trimmed 8.3% |
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 8 x 10 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 11 x 14 in | Wrong shape: a 12% crop |
| 12 x 18 in | 149 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 16 x 20 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 16 x 24 in | 112 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 18 x 24 in | 102 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 20 x 30 in | 89 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 14% crop |
| 24 x 36 in | 74 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 40 in | 61 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 36 x 48 in | 51 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 40 x 60 in | 44 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,852 x 2,693 px, srgb, Adobe RGB (1998)
- Tone
- Darks 15, lights 155 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 2.43
- Notes
- Colour profile Adobe RGB (1998), converted to sRGB for the screen and the print
Shipping for this piece to a US address is $24.80, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.
Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.
A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.
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